Well.... I think I finally have this done. This is from the Super Blue Moon last week. I decided to go down to San Diego and shoot it's skyline with the Super Blue Moon rising behind it. I should have contacted @Bill Richards as I found out later he also went to same area to capture it, just more to the West from where I was.
When I decided to shoot the Super Blue Moon, skyscrapers came to mind immediately. It sounded cool. I am only 35 mins to 2 hours from Downtown Los Angeles depending on what time of day I would go. But I don't go there enough to know a safe place to set up my cameras at. I have been hearing too many bad reports from the homeless and drug problem there, and perhaps if I had been in a group I would have done it. But I decided not to risk it. My 2nd choice was the Long Beach Skyline, it's about 45 minutes away or more, again depending on traffic. It's pretty cool, I could setup near the Queen Mary and image it. But I also wanted to do a timelapse of the Super Blue Moon Rising, and I didn't think Long Beach would generate enough hits on the finished timelapse. So I went for a more popular spot, San Diego!
I knew of a few spots I could go down there, and the one that ended up with the best angle on the skyline was on Harbor Island, you access it right next to the San Diego Airport. Which made for a fun wait as I could watch both airplanes coming in for a landing and also boats in the harbor boating around.
Part of what's taken me a week is working on the Timelapse, which I am still working on, but it's taking several versions to get close to what I want it to look like. Not only for the exposure, but also for the White Balance. The camera captured a very warm WB, which is kind of cool, and the skyline turns very golden. But then so did all of the sky. So it took a lot of back and forth, and reprocessing the raw images to finally settle on this look, which is a blue sky that still lets some of the golden glow in.
One of my issues for the timelapse was the exposure. I had set up my cameras to underexpose by 1 stop to help maintain detail in the moon and so it wouldn't blow out, which I know from experience will happen as the sky and ground quickly get dark after the sunset. But, I should have chosen 2 stops of underexposing. If I wasn't doing a timelapse I could have stopped it right as the moon broke out behind the buildings. But as it was I waited until the moon cleared the building, stopped quick, so I was 1 stop too bright, I quickly underexposed by 2 stops for one image, and then put it back to the original settings so that my timelapse could continue.
Ideally, again from experience, I would have shot the moon rising on the night before the full moon when it's 99%. No one can tell it's not 100% and the sun is up longer as the moon is rising, so then the exposure doesn't become so extreme so fast. But, I didn't, even though I knew it would be easier, because then I wouldn't have captured the Super Blue Moon, it would have been the Almost Super Blue Moon. But if anyone is still reading this, and you want to shoot a moon rise? Do it the night before the full moon, it will be a lot easier.
So, this is one image for the skyline, and a separate image taken about a minute after this of just the moon being exposed properly.
All comments are welcome,
Jim
PS.. Look for the timelapse in the next day or so.
When I decided to shoot the Super Blue Moon, skyscrapers came to mind immediately. It sounded cool. I am only 35 mins to 2 hours from Downtown Los Angeles depending on what time of day I would go. But I don't go there enough to know a safe place to set up my cameras at. I have been hearing too many bad reports from the homeless and drug problem there, and perhaps if I had been in a group I would have done it. But I decided not to risk it. My 2nd choice was the Long Beach Skyline, it's about 45 minutes away or more, again depending on traffic. It's pretty cool, I could setup near the Queen Mary and image it. But I also wanted to do a timelapse of the Super Blue Moon Rising, and I didn't think Long Beach would generate enough hits on the finished timelapse. So I went for a more popular spot, San Diego!
I knew of a few spots I could go down there, and the one that ended up with the best angle on the skyline was on Harbor Island, you access it right next to the San Diego Airport. Which made for a fun wait as I could watch both airplanes coming in for a landing and also boats in the harbor boating around.
Part of what's taken me a week is working on the Timelapse, which I am still working on, but it's taking several versions to get close to what I want it to look like. Not only for the exposure, but also for the White Balance. The camera captured a very warm WB, which is kind of cool, and the skyline turns very golden. But then so did all of the sky. So it took a lot of back and forth, and reprocessing the raw images to finally settle on this look, which is a blue sky that still lets some of the golden glow in.
One of my issues for the timelapse was the exposure. I had set up my cameras to underexpose by 1 stop to help maintain detail in the moon and so it wouldn't blow out, which I know from experience will happen as the sky and ground quickly get dark after the sunset. But, I should have chosen 2 stops of underexposing. If I wasn't doing a timelapse I could have stopped it right as the moon broke out behind the buildings. But as it was I waited until the moon cleared the building, stopped quick, so I was 1 stop too bright, I quickly underexposed by 2 stops for one image, and then put it back to the original settings so that my timelapse could continue.
Ideally, again from experience, I would have shot the moon rising on the night before the full moon when it's 99%. No one can tell it's not 100% and the sun is up longer as the moon is rising, so then the exposure doesn't become so extreme so fast. But, I didn't, even though I knew it would be easier, because then I wouldn't have captured the Super Blue Moon, it would have been the Almost Super Blue Moon. But if anyone is still reading this, and you want to shoot a moon rise? Do it the night before the full moon, it will be a lot easier.
So, this is one image for the skyline, and a separate image taken about a minute after this of just the moon being exposed properly.
All comments are welcome,
Jim
PS.. Look for the timelapse in the next day or so.
